Disclaimer: Not mine. See previous chapters.

The Brotherhood

A/N - Thanks for all the reviews. They definitely cheered me up and cured me of my writer's block.

~~~ Chapter Twelve ~~~

"Harry!" Sirius called out.

Harry looked up from where he was flipping through his photo album.

"Yea?" he called out. He had been in a permanent bad mood since Ginny ha left. Without her companionship, everything seemed a lot gloomier around Grimmauld Place.

Sirius loped into the room, waving a piece of parchment in front of him. "Ginny wrote," he informed the boy.

Harry hurriedly climbed to his feet and rushed over to where Sirius stood, holding the letter.

Sirius smirked in amusement as Harry ripped open the letter and began to read excitedly. However, his excitement didn't last long. His face fell as he read the letter.

"What happened?" Sirius asked, suddenly concerned.

"She's having a tough time. She says that she's already been taken to the ministry twice to be questioned, and her mum is thinking about pulling her out of school, because of all the negative attention she's getting," Harry reported.

"Oh. Well, we suspected this would happen, didn't we?"

Harry didn't reply, because he was reading further down the letter. Suddenly, he smiled again. "She has good news though,"

"What is it?" Sirius questioned.

Harry looked up and grinned. "You'll never guess the Defense teacher,"

Sirius looked confused until Harry said, "Professor Remus Lupin."

Sirius smiled then too. "Well, Harry, it looks like we've got our next mission. Breaking into Hogwarts!"

~~~TB~~~

Ginny glowered at Professor Snape over her cauldron. Ever since the start of this year, she had been particularly cruel to her. She suspected it was a mixture of several things. One, he thought she knew where his two archenemies were, and two, Remus Lupin was teaching, which made him in an irritable mood anyway.

Whatever it was, Ginny was sick of it. Along with all the students questioning or shunning her about Harry, and the teachers keeping an eye on her, like she was a criminal herself, Hogwarts was not fun this year.

Ginny silently cursed Sirius and his stubborn persistence that she go to Hogwarts. She would have rather stayed with them, regardless of if she ever graduated from school, then have to deal with being a social outcast. Of course, she was a social outcast anyway, living with Sirius and Harry, but this was worse, because she was alone.

Ginny waited impatiently for the class to end, and as soon as they were dismissed, she rushed out of there, nearly knocking one of her classmates over as she did so.

Slowing down as she found herself in the near empty hallways leading to the Great Hall for lunch, Ginny kept her eyes down.

"Ginny," a voice called out. Ginny glanced sideways. It was Luna, of course. Luna Lovegood was the only person in the school who didn't seem to think of Ginny as anything but normal. Ginny almost wondered if she oblivious to what had gone on.

"Hello Luna," Ginny greeted, slowing to a stop.

"Are you going for lunch?" Luna asked, tucking her wand behind her ear.

"Yes," Ginny replied.

"Me too," Luna stated.

Without more comments, Ginny and Luna walked side by side down the hallway, ignoring the looks they received.

They had just taken a seat at the Gryffindor table, despite Luna being a Ravenclaw, when a shout came out. "They've been spotted!"

Ginny looked up, startled.

Not far from her, Hermione, Neville, and several other sixth years were huddled around a newspaper. Ginny strained to hear them.

Listening closely, she heard Hermione reading the article out loud. The subject made her freeze. It was about Harry and Sirius, and how they had been seen in Hogsmeade.

"What are they doing so close?" she asked in a whisper, her eyes going wide.

Luna distracted her then, offering some pudding.

~~~TB~~~

Remus sighed as he sat at his desk, reading the Daily Prophet. He had just finished the article saying Black and Potter were seen in Hogsmeade. He was nearly hyperventilating with panic.

He had suspected before that the pair would come after him, but now, his suspicions were confirmed. They had gone looking for him at his home, lucky he wasn't there; then, they had nearly caught him in Diagon Alley. Now, they were coming to him at Hogwarts, where he had thought he would be safe.

Becoming restless, Remus stood and began pacing around his office. He was sure that Dumbledore already knew that they were after him, but Dumbledore thought that Remus was perfectly safe at Hogwarts. He thought that the pair of criminals couldn't get in.

Remus thought that he was wrong. If anyone knew how to get into the castle undetected, it was Black. Not to mention that they had the Marauder's Map too, since they had taken it.

"Professor?" a voice broke him out of his pacing. He turned to look and saw someone very unexpected standing there – Hermione Granger.

Remus recalled, from reading about Harry's conviction, that Hermione was one of Harry's friends. Or, she had been at least. She was very shy, which he had been told was not normal for her. But then again, she had lost both of her best friends all in one go last summer. Kind of like him, actually.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" he replied.

She was giving him a peculiar look, but then she shook her head and answered, "I just had a question about last week's exam…"

A/N - I hope to break 100 reviews with this chapter. I have almost 400 regular readers, so nine reviews should be nothing, right? Still, the most reviews I've ever gotten on a chapters was only thirteen...